Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s thorny transportation issues, spotlights promising approaches to easing gridlock, and helps readers find the best ways to get around. It is funded with the help of community sponsors Alaska Airlines, CenturyLink, Kemper Development Co., NHL Seattle, PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company and Seattle Children’s hospital. Seattle Times editors and reporters operate independently of our funders and maintain editorial control over Traffic Lab content.

Many residents wonder if Seattle is shortchanging drivers as part of a philosophy this decade to favor transit and bicycle routes in an increasingly crowded city. But SDOT insists the Magnolia study isn’t aiming to coax people out of their cars.

“The whole point of coming up with an alternative is to retain the same level of access to the community in-and-out, whether on a car or a bus, or walking, or biking,” said SDOT spokeswoman Mafara Hobson.

Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a Metropolitan King County Council member representing the area, said losing the Garfield crossing — the southernmost of three vehicle paths onto the peninsula — would cause spillover traffic jams into Ballard, the Salmon Bay industrial area and Fishermen’s Terminal.

“It was a shock to a lot of community members, and many people who work in Magnolia,” she said in an interview. “It’s worrisome.”

Why has the issue erupted now? SDOT is keeping a promise made in the 2015 Move Seattle levy, which allocated $1 million for a study, Hobson said.

Drivers in the upscale neighborhood northwest of downtown are already bracing for more congestion. The nearby Alaskan Way Viaduct and its Belltown ramps permanently close this fall, and will be demolished. Traffic will thicken next year when Expedia moves its headquarters to the waterfront north of Centennial Park.

Sound Transit 3 light rail isn’t due from downtown to Ballard until 2035, and during construction, a lane or two of 15th Avenue West may close.

Loo said the old bridge remains safe to drive — unless an earthquake strikes — and he expects it to last until 2024 at least. Weight limits might be required sooner, he said.

The bridge carries 17,000 vehicles a day over train tracks and a ravine — not only serving Magnolia residents but also people traveling to the Pier 91 cruise-ship terminal and the Elliott Bay Marina.

The bridge is deemed “structurally deficient” in the National Bridge Inventory, and it’s been braced or reinforced many times. Routine inspections in March found deck cracks as long as 20 feet. Concrete is flaking off where the bridge rests on support columns.

In a joint statement, elected officials including Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw sought “to convey assurances to the community that the Magnolia Bridge will not be closed in the near future.”

What alternatives are proposed?

Traffic could be shifted to a widened West Dravus Street overpass, a 1.3-mile detour from south Magnolia.

That notion set last month’s forum crowd abuzz. “Dravus is horrible!” a woman yelled.

SDOT is also considering an elevated viaduct from West Armory Way over the BNSF Railway freight yard, landing on Magnolia’s east slope.

Or the city and Port of Seattle might build a short bridge from Interbay directly to Pier 91, industrial flatlands and Elliott Bay Marina.

Truck deliveries of food or supplies to the Magnolia Village retail area, in the south part of the peninsula, would become circuitous under SDOT’s options, said Jason Thibeaux, executive director of the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce.

“None of them address getting traffic into the heart of Magnolia,” he said.

Magnolia resident Janyce Fink suggested that citizens urge the port to donate to a bridge-replacement fund.

“The port does have a very big dog in this fight, because they are ever-expanding the cruise-ship business,” she said.

The port says it’s too early to take a position.

A short bridge to Pier 91 might qualify for federal FAST Act grants, created by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., for freight and port facilities. The act supplied $45 million to the Lander Street Overpass in Sodo, where construction just started.

Retired City Councilmember Nick Licata recalls his colleagues winced years ago when they learned that the ratio of high cost to relatively low traffic disqualified Magnolia Bridge from federal highway grants.

“It never got quite the boost from the executive [mayors], and the council never picked it up,” Licata said.

State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, said frustrations in Magnolia reflect broader anxiety over rising property taxes and a lack of confidence about how public dollars are spent. People at the forum vented about other issues, such as the $275 employer head tax for homeless services, multimillion-dollar bike lanes and thin police staffing.

Carlyle says SDOT bungled its rollout by dismissing a new bridge prematurely, before it knows the price of multiple short projects — which might not necessarily be cheaper.

More importantly, the bridge’s benefits are being overlooked, he said.

“We’re a 21st-century city and region,” he said. “The moment we don’t value our public infrastructure, we are going to go down a pathway we’re going to regret deeply.”

Cost estimates for the bridge alternatives will be published by SDOT within a few weeks.